Mini Album #2 ~ Artiste Cricut Cartridge

Hello, my name is Donna Lee from StampinnscrapinwithDonnaLee.wordpress.com! I am so glad to be here on She's A Sassy Lady! Thank you Sheila for inviting me to share my affection and addiction to paper crafting. Today, I am going to share just one of the adorable Mini Albums that is on the Cricut Artiste cartridge from Close To My Heart. Today's mini album is on page 59 and is cut at 3.8 inches.


Lets get started! I design using my Gypsy or Cricut Craft Room (FREE). This tutorial is using the PC Gypsy.

I set my height to 3.8 inches and chose the 3D Object key. I used it on shift and regular to get the front and back covers of the album. The double sided paper for this album is Chantilly from Close To My Heart. I adore it! Using double sided paper that is a heavier weight allows you to maximize your paper when making a mini album, as you do not have to use chipboard. At the end of this post I will show you this same mini album complete with decorations for each page that I used chipboard and double sided paper. If I am using a lighter weight paper, I will use chipboard for the base of my album and utilize the multi-cut feature on the Cricut/Gypsy/CCR.

For this paper I used a High speed and High pressure setting on my Cricut Expression. My blade setting is at 6. My mat is well used and has been sprayed with goo gone and allowed to soak, scrubbed with a brush and brillo pad (I cut very intricate buttons using glittery paper - oh what a mess this mat was) and wiped clean with a smooth cloth. Its sticky again and cuts perfectly!

Cutting page 1 and 2 is super quick. You can easily double up this project and cut two albums at the same time. This is the Accent 1 key using it with and without Shift key.


Pages 3 and 4 are super fast and again very easy to double up on one 12X12 mat. Use Accent 2 key with and without the Shift key. It's so easy!

Pages 5 and 6 are cut using the Accent 3 key with and without the Shift key. That's it you have cut all the pages just like that! Less than 20 minutes to design and cut. I spent more time agonizing over paper than that. LOL

We are ready to assemble. There are tic marks to tell you where to fold and then crease using a bone folder. When I'm using patterned paper I don't hide the tic marks and unless you are really familiar with this mini album I recommend that you don't hide them on the first one or two you make.
I made to folds using the tic marks and this album is ready to ink and decorate! Oh how I love this cartridge!

I love ink on my projects and my scrapbook pages and mini albums are no exception. I use a dye ink that coordinates with my paper and sponge. I do this to all the pieces.

Here she is, all inked up! So let's talk about matting each page. My method is to measure each page and leave a minimum of an 1/8 of an inch on each side. This album fastens with precut holes so you have, to measure from the right of the holes to far right edge of each page. I decorate the front and back of each page. cut, including the covers.

So easy to do once you know the measurements and have a good paper trimmer and coordinate cardstock or patterned paper.

This took a little bit of time, but its therapy for me so I just enjoy the process of choosing mat sizes, colors, and journaling tags!
I want to share with you this same mini album, that I cut from the Flirty Close To My Heart Scrap Booking kit. It's completely decorated with all the embellishments and ready for the newest baby that's to arrive in our family!

For the front cover I used the font on the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge that is also from Close To My Heart. The keys are Font and Font Layer. I love how this turned out! I used the weld feature on my PC Gypsy to weld her name together using upper and lower case letters. Add some bling and a Complements Dimensional element (owl) from the Scrapbooking kit and a stamp from Close To My Hearts, Its Your Day stamp set and the cover is complete.

More pages!


You see that I used embossing folders with my PC Cuttlebug.

Using a Scrapbooking or coordinated kit helps speed up the Scrapbooking process. I love using the kits to make pages, albums, and full layouts. On this page I used some Nestabilities dies to make these flowers with some Diamond Stickles from Ranger. Using different tools and techniques is a lot of fun and creates a very interesting album.

More embossing, using punches to make this adorable owl in perfect coordinating colors and some easy journal tags using a stapler. These papers are just gorgeous!

I enjoy using the tools that I have to make things that I like and hope others will enjoy. Using a few of my favorite punches, some bling, die cuts, and miniature clothes pins are perfect embellishments for any mini album.

I love incorporating some Kraft colored card stock into my projects and these dies from Nestabilities made great use of some scrap Kraft card stock I had left.
The album is complete and ready to wrap up for the expectant parents. To close the album I used the Velcro Dots from Close To My Heart.
Thank you for reading through this long post! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making it and most of all are inspired to create and use all the tools you have and love! As soon as I get the Chantilly MiniAlbum decorated I'll post it over on my blog with some extra details about embellishments I used. Happy crafting!